Chapter LVII: The Turks.—Part II.

Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of the
Saracens respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by the
victories of Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as far
as Antioch and the eastern boundaries of Armenia.

Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his successors were suddenly
assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who united the Scythian
valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the art and riches of
a powerful monarchy.70617061 For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuator
of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter statesmen; yet such were the
Greeks, that the difference of style and character is scarcely discernible. For the Orientals, I draw as usuul on the wealth
of D'Herbelot (see titles of the first Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. l. x.)
The myriads of Turkish horse overspread a
frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Arzeroum, and the blood of
one hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to
the Arabian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or
lasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the
open country; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege
of an Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspended
with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the Macedonian legions
renewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia.70627062 Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credulity of the vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the Arabs the history
or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D'Herbelot, p. 213 &c.)
The name of Alp Arslan,
the valiant lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of
man; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity
of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish
cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to which
he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the temple of St. Basil.
The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he carried away the
doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and pearls, and profaned the
relics of the tutelar saint, whose mortal frailties were now covered
by the venerable rust of antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia and
Georgia was achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a
kingdom, and the spirit of a nation, were annihilated: the artificial
fortifications were yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; by
strangers without faith, veterans without pay or arms, and recruits
without experience or discipline. The loss of this important frontier
was the news of a day; and the Catholics were neither surprised nor
displeased, that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian and
Eutychian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother into the
hands of the infidels.70637063 (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834, whose ambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that he confounded
the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies,) He familiarly talks of the qualities, as I should apprehend, very foreign to the
perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to confess that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox Romans.
The woods and valleys of Mount Caucasus were
more strenuously defended by the native Georgians70647064 Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks, (Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it from
their agriculture, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling.) But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac.
a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals, (D'Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George
of Cappadocia.
or Iberians; but
the Turkish sultan and his son Malek were indefatigable in this holy
war: their captives were compelled to promise a spiritual, as well as
temporal, obedience; and, instead of their collars and bracelets, an
iron horseshoe, a badge of ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who
still adhered to the worship of their fathers. The change, however, was
not sincere or universal; and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians
have maintained the succession of their princes and bishops. But a race
of men, whom nature has cast in her most perfect mould, is degraded by
poverty, ignorance, and vice; their profession, and still more their
practice, of Christianity is an empty name; and if they have emerged
from heresy, it is only because they are too illiterate to remember a
metaphysical creed.70657065 Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in Chardin's Travels, (tom. i. p. 171-174,) the manners and religion of this
handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes from Adam to the present century, in the tables of M. De
Guignes, (tom. i. p. 433-438.)

The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was not
imitated by Alp Arslan; and he attacked without scruple the Greek
empress Eudocia and her children. His alarming progress compelled her
to give herself and her sceptre to the hand of a soldier; and Romanus
Diogenes was invested with the Imperial purple. His patriotism, and
perhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople within two months after
his accession; and the next campaign he most scandalously took the field
during the holy festival of Easter. In the palace, Diogenes was no more
than the husband of Eudocia: in the camp, he was the emperor of the
Romans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources and
invincible courage. By his spirit and success the soldiers were taught
to act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks
had penetrated into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself had
resigned to his emirs the prosecution of the war; and their numerous
detachments were scattered over Asia in the security of conquest. Laden
with spoil, and careless of discipline, they were separately surprised
and defeated by the Greeks: the activity of the emperor seemed to
multiply his presence: and while they heard of his expedition to
Antioch, the enemy felt his sword on the hills of Trebizond. In three
laborious campaigns, the Turks were driven beyond the Euphrates; in
the fourth and last, Romanus undertook the deliverance of Armenia. The
desolation of the land obliged him to transport a supply of two months'
provisions; and he marched forwards to the siege of Malazkerd,70667066 This city is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,) and the Byzantines
of the xith century, under the name of Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but Delisle, in his notes
and maps, has very properly fixed the situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes Malasgerd as a small town,
built with black stone, supplied with water, without trees, &c.
an
important fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum
and Van. His army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand
men. The troops of Constantinople were reenforced by the disorderly
multitudes of Phrygia and Cappadocia; but the real strength was composed
of the subjects and allies of Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and the
squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a Moldavian horde, who were themselves
of the Turkish race;70677067 The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. tom. iii. p. 923-948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
ii. p. 522, tom. iii. p. 133, &c.) They appear on the Danube and the Volga, and Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the name
seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race.
and, above all, the mercenary and adventurous
bands of French and Normans. Their lances were commanded by the valiant
Ursel of Baliol, the kinsman or father of the Scottish kings,70687068 Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman conquerors of Sicily,
and with the surname of Baliol: and our own historians will tell how the Baliols came from Normandy to Durham, built Bernard's
castle on the Tees, married an heiress of Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No. 4) has labored the
subject in honor of the president de Bailleul, whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown.
and
were allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or, according to the
Greek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance.

On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened his hereditary
dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at the head of forty
thousand horse.70697069 Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number, which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000, (p. 227,) and by D'Herbelot
(p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives 300,000 met to the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum centum hominum
millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers.
His rapid and skilful evolutions distressed and
dismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks; and in the defeat of
Basilacius, one of their principal generals, he displayed the first
example of his valor and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had
separated his forces after the reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain
that he attempted to recall the mercenary Franks: they refused to obey
his summons; he disdained to await their return: the desertion of the
Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and suspicion; and against the most
salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy and decisive action. Had he
listened to the fair proposals of the sultan, Romanus might have secured
a retreat, perhaps a peace; but in these overtures he supposed the fear
or weakness of the enemy, and his answer was conceived in the tone
of insult and defiance. "If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him
evacuate the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans,
and surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his sincerity."
Alp Arslan smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he wept the death of
so many faithful Moslems; and, after a devout prayer, proclaimed a free
permission to all who were desirous of retiring from the field. With his
own hands he tied up his horse's tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for
a mace and cimeter, clothed himself in a white garment, perfumed his
body with musk, and declared that if he were vanquished, that spot
should be the place of his burial.70707070 The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch, had
retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or truth?
The sultan himself had affected
to cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of victory were placed
in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose squadrons were loosely
distributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the successive lines
and reserves of the Grecian tactics, Romulus led his army in a single
and solid phalanx, and pressed with vigor and impatience the artful and
yielding resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless
combat he spent the greater part of a summer's day, till prudence and
fatigue compelled him to return to his camp. But a retreat is always
perilous in the face of an active foe; and no sooner had the standard
been turned to the rear than the phalanx was broken by the base
cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a rival prince, who
disgraced his birth and the purple of the Caesars.70717071 He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the emperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus Bryennius
applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i. p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus. Scylitzes
speaks more explicitly of his treason.
The Turkish
squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on this moment of confusion and
lassitude; and the horns of their formidable crescent were closed in the
rear of the Greeks. In the destruction of the army and pillage of
the camp, it would be needless to mention the number of the slain or
captives. The Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimable
pearl: they forgot to mention, that in this fatal day the Asiatic
provinces of Rome were irretrievably sacrificed.

As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save the
relics of his army. When the centre, the Imperial station, was left
naked on all sides, and encompassed by the victorious Turks, he still,
with desperate courage, maintained the fight till the close of day, at
the head of the brave and faithful subjects who adhered to his standard.
They fell around him; his horse was slain; the emperor was wounded;
yet he stood alone and intrepid, till he was oppressed and bound by the
strength of multitudes. The glory of this illustrious prize was disputed
by a slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen him on the throne of
Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had been excused
on the promise of some signal service.

Despoiled of his arms, his jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent a
dreary and perilous night on the field of battle, amidst a disorderly
crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning the royal captive was
presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his fortune, till the identity
of the person was ascertained by the report of his ambassadors, and by
the more pathetic evidence of Basilacius, who embraced with tears
the feet of his unhappy sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in a
plebeian habit, was led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss
the ground before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp
Arslan, starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on
the neck of the Roman emperor.70727072 This circumstance, which we read and doubt in Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by Nicephorus
and Zonaras.
But the fact is doubtful; and if, in
this moment of insolence, the sultan complied with the national custom,
the rest of his conduct has extorted the praise of his bigoted foes, and
may afford a lesson to the most civilized ages. He instantly raised the
royal captive from the ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tender
sympathy, assured him, that his life and dignity should be inviolate
in the hands of a prince who had learned to respect the majesty of his
equals and the vicissitudes of fortune. From the divan, Romanus was
conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served with pomp and
reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day, seated
him in the place of honor at his own table. In a free and familiar
conversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of insult escaped
from the conqueror; but he severely censured the unworthy subjects who
had deserted their valiant prince in the hour of danger, and gently
admonished his antagonist of some errors which he had committed in the
management of the war. In the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp
Arslan asked him what treatment he expected to receive, and the calm
indifference of the emperor displays the freedom of his mind. "If you
are cruel," said he, "you will take my life; if you listen to pride, you
will drag me at your chariot-wheels; if you consult your interest,
you will accept a ransom, and restore me to my country." "And what,"
continued the sultan, "would have been your own behavior, had fortune
smiled on your arms?" The reply of the Greek betrays a sentiment, which
prudence, and even gratitude, should have taught him to suppress. "Had I
vanquished," he fiercely said, "I would have inflicted on thy body many
a stripe." The Turkish conqueror smiled at the insolence of his captive
observed that the Christian law inculcated the love of enemies and
forgiveness of injuries; and nobly declared, that he would not imitate
an example which he condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslan
dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million,70737073 Elmacin gives 1,500,000. Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuz-zuge, vol. l. p. 10.—M.
an
annual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand pieces of gold,
70747074 The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and the Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but Nicephorus Bryennius
dares to affirm, that the terms were bad and that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful treaty.
the marriage of the royal children, and the deliverance of all
the Moslems, who were in the power of the Greeks. Romanus, with a sigh,
subscribed this treaty, so disgraceful to the majesty of the empire; he
was immediately invested with a Turkish robe of honor; his nobles and
patricians were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, after
a courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a military
guard. No sooner did he reach the confines of the empire, than he was
informed that the palace and provinces had disclaimed their allegiance
to a captive: a sum of two hundred thousand pieces was painfully
collected; and the fallen monarch transmitted this part of his ransom,
with a sad confession of his impotence and disgrace. The generosity, or
perhaps the ambition, of the sultan, prepared to espouse the cause of
his ally; but his designs were prevented by the defeat, imprisonment,
and death, of Romanus Diogenes.70757075 The defeat and captivity of Romanus Diogenes may be found in John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 835-843. Zonaras,
tom. ii. p. 281-284. Nicephorus Bryennius, l. i. p. 25-32. Glycas, p. 325-327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134. Elmacin, Hist.
Saracen. p. 343 344. Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 227. D'Herbelot, p. 102, 103. D Guignes, tom. iii. p. 207-211. Besides my old
acquaintance Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the historian of the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer Benschounah,
a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Abulmahasen of Egypt, and Novairi of Africa.

In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan extorted any
province or city from the captive emperor; and his revenge was satisfied
with the trophies of his victory, and the spoils of Anatolia, from
Antioch to the Black Sea. The fairest part of Asia was subject to his
laws: twelve hundred princes, or the sons of princes, stood before his
throne; and two hundred thousand soldiers marched under his banners.
The sultan disdained to pursue the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated the
more glorious conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of the house
of Seljuk. He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was
thrown over the river; and twenty days were consumed in the passage
of his troops. But the progress of the great king was retarded by the
governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian presumed to defend his
fortress against the powers of the East. When he was produced a captive
in the royal tent, the sultan, instead of praising his valor, severely
reproached his obstinate folly: and the insolent replies of the rebel
provoked a sentence, that he should be fastened to four stakes, and
left to expire in that painful situation. At this command, the desperate
Carizmian, drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne: the
guards raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by Alp Arslan,
the most skilful archer of the age: he drew his bow, but his foot
slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his breast the
dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces.

The wound was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying
admonition to the pride of kings. "In my youth," said Alp Arslan, "I
was advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to distrust my
own strength; and never to despise the most contemptible foe. I have
neglected these lessons; and my neglect has been deservedly punished.
Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the numbers, the discipline, and
the spirit, of my armies, the earth seemed to tremble under my feet; and
I said in my heart, Surely thou art the king of the world, the greatest
and most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and,
in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of
an assassin."70767076 This interesting death is told by D'Herbelot, (p. 103, 104,) and M. De Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their Oriental
writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 344, 345.)
Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and a
Mussulman; his voice and stature commanded the reverence of mankind; his
face was shaded with long whiskers; and his ample turban was fashioned
in the shape of a crown. The remains of the sultan were deposited in the
tomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and the passenger might read and meditate
this useful inscription:70777077 A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson,) who has severely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in this sublime
inscription at the words "repair to Maru," since the reader must already be at Maru before he could peruse the inscription.
"O ye who have seen the glory of Alp
Arslan exalted to the heavens, repair to Maru, and you will behold it
buried in the dust." The annihilation of the inscription, and the tomb
itself, more forcibly proclaims the instability of human greatness.

During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been acknowledged as
the future sultan of the Turks. On his father's death the inheritance
was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother: they drew their
cimeters, and assembled their followers; and the triple victory of Malek
Shah70787078 The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of the reign of Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the Histoire Generale
des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214-224) has added the usual measure of repetition emendation, and supplement. Without those two learned
Frenchmen I should be blind indeed in the Eastern world.
established his own reputation and the right of primogeniture.
In every age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power has
inspired the same passions, and occasioned the same disorders; but,
from the long series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract a
sentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the saying of
the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his devotions
at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from the
ground, he asked his vizier Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had
been the object of his secret petition: "That your arms may be crowned
with victory," was the prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer of
the minister. "For my part," replied the generous Malek, "I implored
the Lord of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if
my brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems." The
favorable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and for
the first time, the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful was
communicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian, by his personal merit,
and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince of his age.
After the settlement of Persia and Syria, he marched at the head of
innumerable armies to achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had been
undertaken by his father. In his passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who
had been employed in transporting some troops, complained, that their
payment was assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned at
this preposterous choice; but he miled at the artful flattery of his
vizier. "It was not to postpone their reward, that I selected those
remote places, but to leave a memorial to posterity, that, under your
reign, Antioch and the Oxus were subject to the same sovereign." But
this description of his limits was unjust and parsimonious: beyond the
Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, and
Samarcand, and crushed each rebellious slave, or independent savage, who
dared to resist. Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last boundary
of Persian civilization: the hordes of Turkestan yielded to his
supremacy: his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers of
Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From the
Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or feudatory
sway to the west and south, as far as the mountains of Georgia, the
neighborhood of Constantinople, the holy city of Jerusalem, and the
spicy groves of Arabia Felix. Instead of resigning himself to the luxury
of his harem, the shepherd king, both in peace and war, was in action
and in the field. By the perpetual motion of the royal camp, each
province was successively blessed with his presence; and he is said to
have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions,
which surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of these
expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of Mecca:
the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by his arms; the
citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the profusion of his alms; and
the desert was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, which
he instituted for the use of his brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and
even the passion, of the sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven
thousand horses; but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for each
piece of game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slight
atonement, at the expense of the people, for the cost and mischief of
the amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity of his reign, the
cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and hospitals with moschs and
colleges; few departed from his Divan without reward, and none without
justice. The language and literature of Persia revived under the house
of Seljuk;70797079 See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir William Jones's History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the poets, Amak,
Anvari, Raschidi, &c., in the Bibliotheque Orientale.
and if Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk less
potent than himself,70807080 His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed round his sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls of gold
and silver to the poets, (D'Herbelot, p. 107.) All this may be true; but I do not understand how he could reign in Transoxiana
in the time of Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder could surpass him in power and pomp. I suspect that the beginning, not
the end, of the xith century is the true aera of his reign.
his palace might resound with the songs of a
hundred poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care
on the reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general
assembly of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet, the
Moslems are confined to the irregular course of the lunar months; in
Persia, since the age of Zoroaster, the revolution of the sun has been
known and celebrated as an annual festival;70817081 See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 235.
but after the fall of
the Magian empire, the intercalation had been neglected; the fractions
of minutes and hours were multiplied into days; and the date of the
springs was removed from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign
of Malek was illustrated by the Gelalaean aera; and all errors, either
past or future, were corrected by a computation of time, which surpasses
the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian, style.70827082 The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith, was one of the names or titles of Malek Shah) is fixed to the xvth of
March, A. H. 471, A.D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the original testimonies of the Persians and Arabians, (de Religione veterum
Persarum, c. 16 p. 200-211.)

In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest barbarism, the light
and splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the docility rather than the
knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An ample share of their wisdom and
virtue is due to a Persian vizier, who ruled the empire under the reigns
of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of the most illustrious ministers
of the East, was honored by the caliph as an oracle of religion and
science; he was trusted by the sultan as the faithful vicegerent of his
power and justice. After an administration of thirty years, the fame
of the vizier, his wealth, and even his services, were transformed into
crimes. He was overthrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival;
and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration, that his cap and
ink-horn, the badges of his office, were connected by the divine decree
with the throne and diadem of the sultan. At the age of ninety-three
years, the venerable statesman was dismissed by his master, accused by
his enemies, and murdered by a fanatic:70837083 He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen,
p. 95.—M.
the last words of Nizam
attested his innocence, and the remainder of Malek's life was short and
inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of this disgraceful transaction, the
sultan moved to Bagdad, with the design of transplanting the caliph,
and of fixing his own residence in the capital of the Moslem world. The
feeble successor of Mahomet obtained a respite of ten days; and before
the expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the angel of
death. His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in marriage a Roman
princess; but the proposal was decently eluded; and the daughter
of Alexius, who might herself have been the victim, expresses her
abhorrence of his unnatural conjunction.70847084 She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena was only nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah, (A.D. 1092,)
and when she speaks of his assassination, she confounds the sultan with the vizier, (Alexias, l. vi. p. 177, 178.)
The daughter of the sultan
was bestowed on the caliph Moctadi, with the imperious condition, that,
renouncing the society of his wives and concubines, he should forever
confine himself to this honorable alliance.

7061 For these wars of the Turks and Romans, see in general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuator
of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter statesmen; yet such were the
Greeks, that the difference of style and character is scarcely discernible. For the Orientals, I draw as usuul on the wealth
of D'Herbelot (see titles of the first Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. l. x.)

7062 Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The credulity of the vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the Arabs the history
or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D'Herbelot, p. 213 &c.)

7063 (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834, whose ambiguous construction shall not tempt me to suspect that he confounded
the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies,) He familiarly talks of the qualities, as I should apprehend, very foreign to the
perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to confess that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox Romans.

7064 Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks, (Stritter, Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it from
their agriculture, (l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling.) But it appears only since the crusades, among the Latins (Jac.
a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095) and Orientals, (D'Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George
of Cappadocia.

7065 Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in Chardin's Travels, (tom. i. p. 171-174,) the manners and religion of this
handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes from Adam to the present century, in the tables of M. De
Guignes, (tom. i. p. 433-438.)

7066 This city is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,) and the Byzantines
of the xith century, under the name of Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but Delisle, in his notes
and maps, has very properly fixed the situation. Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes Malasgerd as a small town,
built with black stone, supplied with water, without trees, &c.

7067 The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. tom. iii. p. 923-948) are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des Huns, tom.
ii. p. 522, tom. iii. p. 133, &c.) They appear on the Danube and the Volga, and Armenia, Syria, and Chorasan, and the name
seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race.

7068 Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is distinguished by Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman conquerors of Sicily,
and with the surname of Baliol: and our own historians will tell how the Baliols came from Normandy to Durham, built Bernard's
castle on the Tees, married an heiress of Scotland, &c. Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No. 4) has labored the
subject in honor of the president de Bailleul, whose father had exchanged the sword for the gown.

7069 Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this probable number, which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000, (p. 227,) and by D'Herbelot
(p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives 300,000 met to the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum centum hominum
millibus, multisque equis et magna pompa instructus. The Greeks abstain from any definition of numbers.

7070 The Byzantine writers do not speak so distinctly of the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch, had
retired to a distance, &c. Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or truth?

7071 He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the emperor Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus Bryennius
applauds his virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i. p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he owns his enmity to Romanus. Scylitzes
speaks more explicitly of his treason.

7072 This circumstance, which we read and doubt in Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses, is more prudently omitted by Nicephorus
and Zonaras.

7074 The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and the Orientals. The other Greeks are modestly silent; but Nicephorus Bryennius
dares to affirm, that the terms were bad and that the emperor would have preferred death to a shameful treaty.

7076 This interesting death is told by D'Herbelot, (p. 103, 104,) and M. De Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their Oriental
writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 344, 345.)

7077 A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson,) who has severely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in this sublime
inscription at the words "repair to Maru," since the reader must already be at Maru before he could peruse the inscription.

7078 The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of the reign of Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the Histoire Generale
des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214-224) has added the usual measure of repetition emendation, and supplement. Without those two learned
Frenchmen I should be blind indeed in the Eastern world.

7079 See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir William Jones's History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the poets, Amak,
Anvari, Raschidi, &c., in the Bibliotheque Orientale.

7080 His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed round his sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls of gold
and silver to the poets, (D'Herbelot, p. 107.) All this may be true; but I do not understand how he could reign in Transoxiana
in the time of Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder could surpass him in power and pomp. I suspect that the beginning, not
the end, of the xith century is the true aera of his reign.

7082 The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith, was one of the names or titles of Malek Shah) is fixed to the xvth of
March, A. H. 471, A.D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the original testimonies of the Persians and Arabians, (de Religione veterum
Persarum, c. 16 p. 200-211.)

7083 He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen,
p. 95.—M.

7084 She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena was only nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah, (A.D. 1092,)
and when she speaks of his assassination, she confounds the sultan with the vizier, (Alexias, l. vi. p. 177, 178.)